Report 2039: Ten Days in Great Britain: London and the Cotswolds

Page 4 of 11: Cotswolds, Here We Come

Kettle Cottage

Wednesday, and we’re off to the Cotswolds for a week in a rental. We took the Tube to Paddington station, and from there we hopped on the Great Malvern train to Oxford, about an hour’s ride. No problems. Our prearranged car rental via Kemwel was with Europcar, and we picked up our cute little automobile, a Toyota Arius (they surprised us with a hybrid, with excellent gas mileage) without a hitch. Bringing along with us our trusty GPS with a downloaded UK map was one of the better moves we made, and bailed us out of many a wrong turn.

Adjusting to driving on the opposite side of the street, and a car with the driver on the opposite side of the car, took some getting used to, and I’m not sure I ever fully adjusted, but we never incurred a scratch in the car nor a near-miss on any road, so I consider our driving a total success. The new driving patterns did incur a little straining on the marital bliss front, but nothing we couldn’t navigate there, either.

On the way to our home in the Cotswolds for the next week, we stopped first in the town of Witney, where we were advised to pick up food munitions at their local Waitrose (thank you, Pauline!). Good advice – their food was excellent. Onward to Chipping Campden, our storybook town for the week. We found our Kettle Cottage rental without difficulty, thanks to great communications with the manager. It was a two-story little cottage, attached to the back of a home right off the main street. We had privacy, quiet, and a view of St. James Bell Tower from our windows. It was perfect.